Posted on 09/25/2023 5:55:43 AM PDT by Red Badger
"IT'S CRAZY TO THINK THAT OUR COLLECTIVE BOWEL DYSFUNCTION PROBLEMS HAVE GOTTEN SO BAD THAT WE'RE LITERALLY RUNNING OUT OF STOOL SOFTENERS."
Laxatives are having a major cultural renaissance — so much so, in fact, that soaring demand for the drugs is reportedly causing a national shortage.
As The Wall Street Journal reports, the US is experiencing a scarcity of polyethylene glycol 3350, the pharmaceutical powering name-brand products like Miralax and Glycolax. As for why? It's complicated.
Per the report, there are several suspected culprits for the rising laxative demand. On the one hand, the American population is aging, and older adults are more likely to suffer from constipation than younger folks. The average American also doesn't consume nearly enough fiber, and elsewhere, the WSJ notes that "lingering physical and psychological effects of the pandemic" appear to be playing a role in the lax-revolution as well. While locked indoors, people exercised less, ate worse, and experienced high levels of stress — all of which can contribute to gastrointestinal issues, constipation included. And on the flip side, the end of the pandemic, which disrupted our newfound routines, sending many back into the office and reviving a flailing travel industry, may have caused its own wave of gastrointestinal problems as well.
"It's crazy to think that our collective bowel dysfunction problems have gotten so bad that we're literally running out of stool softeners," Dr. George Pavlou, head of the Gastroenterology Associates of New Jersey, told the WSJ.
The growing laxative demand might also be linked to more concerning psychological trends. Per the report, some laxative buyers appear to be using the medicine as a de facto Ozempic. Of course, the two drugs are very different, and Ozempic is much more expensive than over-the-counter stool softeners. But various laxatives have been a staple of diet culture for decades now, despite the fact that they don't actually promote weight loss, and mostly just result in dehydration, mineral imbalances, and in some severe cases, internal organ damage, according to the National Eating Disorders Association — although that's not stopping people with disordered eating from trying them nonetheless.
"When people have an excessive bowel movement and they feel completely empty inside, that gets wrapped up in thinness and health," Eating disorder specialist Dr. Jenna DiLossi told the WSJ.
DiLossi told the newspaper that before the pandemic, her clients rarely reported turning to laxatives as a weight loss measure; now, however, at least "three to five" of new teen clients every week admit to taking laxatives as an attempted weight loss measure, often telling the doctor that they got the idea from TikTok.
"I had periods in my early 20s where I really struggled with disordered eating," 30-year-old Sophie Spiers, a fashion copywriter in Los Angeles, told the WSJ, "and it became tied to a mental thing of having to take my Miralax or I'm going to feel fat today." And though Spiers told the newspaper that she's learned to manage her reliance in a healthier way, she says she still takes Miralax every morning.
Laxatives aren't the only shelf item seeing a sales spark in recent months. Relatedly, the WSJ report notes that a growing number of consumers — young folks included — are reaching for passage-inducing fiber supplements, which doesn't exactly feel like a coincidence.
"The demand has changed," Jissan Cherian, a director of marketing at Haleon, the company that manufactures Benefiber, told the WSJ.
To be clear, laxatives and other stool-related supplements do have their medical place. But an unhealthy or unnecessary reliance can wreak havoc on the gastrointestinal system, and if you find yourself reaching for them on the daily — especially if you're a younger person — the eternal advice remains: talk to your doctor first, and as one expert told the WSJ, maybe up your fruit, vegetable, and whole grain intake before reaching for drugs at all. And if you're just looking for the feeling of an empty stomach? You might want to just skip the laxatives altogether.
More on weight loss trends: Scientist Behind Ozempic Warns That There's a "Price"
It’s a marketing gimmick.
Like making a razor out of pink plastic instead of black plastic and calling it a ‘women’s razor’ and charging twice the price for it....................
Probiotics don’t do s**t. None of the microorganisms that are called probiotics are capable of surviving in the digestive tract long enough to do anything. They are all weak. If they would work for some people they would cause severe problems in other people. Don’t waste your money.
IBS does not accommodate salads well. It does not accommodate much that is good
Fiber1 cereal, the heavy 60% version, a handful of prunes and a glass of sauerkraut juice will also provide relief. Keep plenty of tp on hand and don’t go on any extended trips.
😳😄
Fiber One products are great.
Vitamin C to bowel tolerance solves constipation.
Also magnesium.
The first few days will be a liquid mess... but once you reach a good level you will have nice smooth and firm hilLIARyloafs
A bankrupt constipated collapsing society.
So does semaglutide (Ozempic), the popular weight loss medication.
Alright everyone, post your meatloaf recipes to help out with laxatives.
I am perplexed by the increasing demand for laxatives as the Biden economy should make anyone mad enough to shit every time they buy groceries or fill their car with gas. Perhaps it is the EV owners who are driving the demand for laxatives as they are full of it in their smugnesses.
Well, this may be kind of good. It suggests that while many people are full of it they may actually trying to get rid of it. There may be hope for America.
Why can't everybody be normal like me?
That statement is objectively untrue; repeating it reinforces the wrong belief that there is "nothing" else. But there are therapies and they should be sought and given a fair trial.
Oh yeah. I’ll pop two Glycinate at dinner and sleep great.
“It’s [fentanyl] found in Marijuana, which A SAFE DRUG.”
It’s found in BLACK-MARKET marijuana, just as contaminants were found in alcohol when that drug was illegal. The answer is broader legalization, and setting taxes low enough to make the illegal product uncompetitive.
This “opioid” angle is a broken record and really not a valid issue for the scant few still able to get opioids by long-term prescription. There’s so few anymore, it probably doesn’t even rise to the level of a “significant sample.” Of course, that doesn’t apply to the opioids taken from black market sources - but those folks are hardly the type to worry about constipation. Blame diet, low water intake, lack of exercise, or laxative dependence. Opioid use would rank at the bottom of nexus causes (unless, of course, you choose to believe the government propaganda sources).
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